


A Summer in New York

by gentlebug



Category: RuPaul's Drag Race (US) RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, College AU kinda, Crystal can’t cook for shit, F/F, Fluff, Lesbian AU, Secret Crush, Summer, banter!!, crystal is 21 and a cool artsy lesbian, gigi has Issues but thats okay, gigi is 18 and a dumb baby gay, jan is there shes fun, slow burn probably, will add tags and characters as i go
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-24
Updated: 2021-01-24
Packaged: 2021-03-17 00:22:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28965315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gentlebug/pseuds/gentlebug
Summary: After a rough senior year of high school, Gigi is desperate to get away her small town life. So when her older sister Jan invites her to her apartment in New York for the summer, Gigi immediately accepts the invitation. What she doesn’t expect however, is to fall head over heels for the curly haired roommate called Crystal, who seems to be everything that Gigi isn’t. As the summer goes on, will Crystal be the one to teach Gigi to accept herself and live her truth?.(yes, yes that’s what will happen)((summaries are really hard to write but you should give this a shot!!))
Relationships: Gigi Goode/Crystal Methyd
Comments: 11
Kudos: 27





	A Summer in New York

**Author's Note:**

> hi okay so this is the first fic I’ve written since sixth grade?? So? It might not be perfect but I’m kinda excited to get back into it!! constructive criticism is very welcome, I’m a slut for feedback lmao 
> 
> full disclosure: I’m not from the us so if I get any details about like college/how stuff works wrong then I’m sorry, let me know in the comments and I’ll learn from it haha
> 
> Gigi just graduated high school which makes her eighteen (I think??)   
> Crystal is 21 and attending art school, between her second and third year  
> Jan is 21 as well, between second and third year, and majoring in musical theatre because of course
> 
> Kudos and comments are super appreciated, hope you guys enjoy!!! Next chapter will be up sometime in the next 7 days :p

“Genevieve! We need to leave now if you want to make it to the airport on time, sweetie!” 

“I’m coming, mom!” Gigi clumsily hurried down the stairs of the white suburban house, with a shiny pink suitcase in one hand and an overfilled backpack in the other. 

“Are you sure you packed everything you need?” Her mother asked as she slid her feet into her sneakers, checking her ash blonde hair in the hallway mirror before grabbing her car keys and turning to open the front door. 

“Yes mom, I’ve packed like half of my belongings... Besides, I’m sure Jan will let me borrow stuff if there’s anything I’ve forgotten, no need to worry,” Gigi answered as she threw on her white jean jacket and followed the older woman out the door. As they heaved the luggage into the trunk of the family car, Gigi felt her stomach fill with butterflies of anxiety as well as excitement. She spent most of the car ride silently looking out the car window, too nervous to make small talk. It hadn’t really hit her until now that she really would be spending the entire summer away from home, living with her older sister and her roommate on the other side of the country. Gigi and Jan had always been very close, the kind of sisterly friendship that most girls only ever dreamed of. As soon as Gigi could walk, she and Jan had been attached at the hip. The last few years however, the two had drifted a bit. Not voluntarily, but because of the 2000 miles put between them when Jan decided to move from their family home in L.A. to a dusty old apartment in New York city, all to study musical theatre at some prestigious arts college. Gigi could hardly blame her for following her dreams, but she would be lying if she said that it didn’t break her heart a little bit to be separated from the sister she had been right next to her entire life. That had been 2 years ago, and since then they had only been face to face a handful of times. Of course Jan kept in touch, with her weekly facetime calls and daily texts (which mostly consisted of dumb tiktoks and ugly selfies) but it wasn’t really the same, it couldn’t compare to hanging out in real life. So, naturally, when Jan asked Gigi if she wanted to spend the summer with her in New York, the newly graduated little sister said yes with no hesetation whatsoever. 

Gigi’s mother, Angela, who knew her daughter very well, could sense how tense she was. “Is everything alright, Genenvieve? Are you having second thoughts? You know, you can come back home anytime.”

“Yeah, I know mom, I’m fine. You don’t need to treat me like a baby, I’m eighteen,” Gigi sighed with a smile and a slight roll of her eyes, knowing her mother’s worry only came from a place of love. 

“Well you might not be  _ a  _ baby but you’ll always be  _ my  _ baby. And even eighteen year olds can get nervous and homesick. It’s your first summer away from home, your first look into adult life,” the middle aged woman explained. 

“Yeah, I guess. I think I’m mostly just nervous that I’m gonna be in the way of Jan and her friends… Like, I don’t wanna be that annoying little kid who stops them from having fun. I mean, what if her roommate just hates me? What if I hate her?” the young blonde worried, confessing what had been weighing on her heart all morning. She hadn’t actually lived with Jan for years, what if they didn’t get along like they used to? 

Angela scoffed with a warm smile on her thin lips. “Oh please, Jan was the one who invited  _ you _ , she wants you there. You know your big sister loves you more than anything, she wouldn’t have asked you to come if she thought you would get in the way. And you also know that Jan’s roommate said that she didn’t mind having you stay with them at all, so stop your worrying!” 

Gigi hummed in agreeance, she couldn’t really argue with that. Jan had stressed again and again that her roommate Crystal was totally fine with Gigi living with them for the summer, she was even excited to meet the little sister that Jan always raved about. 

“I think this will be good for you, Vieve. Get some change of scenery, meet some new people, see what the world is like outside of suburban Los Angeles,” the older woman reasoned as she parked the car outside the enormous airport. 

Gigi only nodded in response, knowing very well what her mother was trying to say. Senior year had been… rough, for the blonde. There had been a lot of problems weighing on her that all accumulated in a full-on breakdown where she broke up with her boyfriend of two years, threw all of her college applications in the garbage can, and ruined her carefully constructed high school reputation, all in a day. There was just so much pressure, so many expectations, and Gigi truly didn’t know what to do with herself. Everything around her was moving so fast, and she felt like she was miles behind. Her friends were applying to colleges, excitedly planning their futures with such certainty and positivity. Meanwhile Gigi had no fucking clue what she wanted to do with her life, and the constant questions from everyone she ever talked to certainly didn’t help.  _ “I don’t know, I haven’t really decided yet” _ became Gigi’s catchphrase for senior year. Her boyfriend Brandon happily took any chance he got to remind her of his football scholarship that he got from a school right by their hometown, saying how nice it would be if Gigi stayed with him. Gigi always did her best to change the subject whenever he tried to bring it up. 

It wasn’t that Brandon wasn’t nice, he was a perfectly fine guy. And the two were a cute match, at least that’s what everyone said. The stylish, popular blonde with the charming, blue-eyed football player, it just made sense. So Gigi went along with it for appearances sake, she let him ask her out, even though she never felt the butterflies that the movies promised her. She said yes when he asked to be her boyfriend even though time spent with Brandon felt more like an obligation than anything else. And so, after enough nagging from the quarterback she started filling in applications for L.A.-universities so that she could stay close to Brandon, just like he wanted. Because Brandon was safe, and dating him was safe and boring and nice, and if she stuck with him she could keep ignoring the way her heart sped up when she saw Dahlia the cheerleader changing in the locker room, or how she blushed like crazy when the Canadian transfer student Brooklyn said that her hair looked cute. Being with Brandon was so much easier. But then he started talking about marriage. At first it was in a joking manner, but Gigi noticed with horror how his tone became more genuine everytime he approached the subject. When the time came to send in their college applications, Brandon proposed. He actually proposed and Gigi cried. Not because she was happy but because she knew she had to stop pretending to be okay with all of it. The boyfriend she didn’t love, the future plans she wanted nothing to do with, the life that didn’t feel like her own. After some back and forth yelling between the supposed highschool sweethearts Gigi ran home, finding all of her college applications and ripping them apart while mascara ran down her red cheeks. Her parents were angry, Brandon was pissed, and Gigi had never experienced such a thrilling combination of fear and liberty before. Word got around quickly, and the once popular Gigi’s reputation was practically ruined. Brandon gave her angry looks in the hallway, all of her friends stopped talking to her, and her family desperately tried to understand what had gone wrong with their perfect little girl. The only one who seemed to back Gigi up was Jan, who had calmed her down over the phone and confessed that she never really liked Brandon anyways. 

Safe to say, Gigi’s last months of high school weren’t great, but she graduated nonetheless and now there was truly nothing keeping her in that small hometown of hers. 

So, yes, maybe her mom was right. Maybe she needed to get some new perspectives on life, get some new experiences. Get the hell out of L.A. 

“Well, sweetheart, do you want me to follow you inside?” Gigi’s mom asked as she started pulling the pink suitcase out of the car trunk. 

Gigi shook her head as she put on her heavy backpack and grabbed the suitcase from her mother. “No, I’ll be fine. It’s time to board soon anyways so...”

“Okay baby, then come here and let me hug you one last time,” the older woman exclaimed as she engulfed her daughter in a tight hug, as though she could keep her from leaving if she just held on hard enough. 

\---

After an emotional goodbye that most certainly did  _ not _ make Gigi cry, the tall blonde found herself in the airport with 20 minutes to go before the airplane was leaving. Pulling out her phone, she opened up her contacts and found her sister’s number. With excitement coursing through her body her fingers fumbled as she typed out a text. 

**_Me: heyy jannie, about to board the plane now!! see u in 6 hours!!!_ **

Jan, who always kept an eye on her phone, answered almost immediately. 

**_Surejan: OMG cant wait!! 💜 im so hyped, see u at the airport 🥳😍_ **

Gigi chuckled quietly, feeling like maybe she didn’t actually have that much to be nervous about. 

\---

The plane ride was, well, a plane ride. The seat was a bit uncomfortable, the coffee was a bit bitter, and the middle aged man in the seat next to Gigi’s was snoring a bit too loudly for her comfort. Eventually though, it came to an end, and Gigi could barely contain her excitement as she made her way to the terminal, stretching her long neck to try to spot Jan in the crowd of strangers all looking for their own loved ones. Suddenly she heard a high-pitched shriek that Gigi knew could only belong to one person. 

“GIGI, OVER HERE!!” Jan all but screamed and the younger girl turned to her left to find her beloved sister bouncing up and down with her hands waving in the air. Gigi’s legs seemed to move on their own accord and before she knew it her bags were on the ground as she held her older sister with a tightness she didn’t know she was capable of. 

“Oh Jan, I’m so happy to see you,” she mumbled into the older girl’s golden hair with tears welling up in her eyes. 

The two made a striking pair, with their long blonde hair and honey brown eyes, though that was about all that they had in common. Where Gigi was tall and sort of lanky, Jan was shorter and curvier. Gigi’s face was sharp and pointed, while her older sister had softer, rounder features. Still, anyone could see that they were sisters, and as they were standing with their arms around each other in the middle of the busy airport, they looked as though they simply fit together. 

“I’m so glad you’re here, Geege!” Jan exclaimed as they pulled apart from their hug. “We are gonna have, like, the best summer ever! I can’t wait to show you the magic of New York and all of that” she giggled as she grabbed her sister’s suitcase and started walking towards the exit, making sure that Gigi was following. 

“I’m really happy you invited me out here, Jan. Honestly I don’t think I could have survived another week back home,” Gigi joked, though there was an underlying honesty to her words.

“Hey, I get it,” the shorter woman said knowingly, “if I’d had the year you’ve had I would wanna escape for a while too.” 

The pity in Jan’s eyes made Gigi want to throw her bag on the ground and scream. She gave her sister a weak smile in response. She hated it, the sympathy, would much rather forget that anything had happened at all. Ever since her little breakdown people had been treating her so strangely, like Gigi was a broken doll held together by scotch tape and hot glue. They all tiptoed around her, as if they were worried of saying the wrong thing and sending the girl into another fit where she would scream and cry and panic, just like the first time. But Gigi was fine, really, she didn’t need people feeling bad for her. All she needed was a break from it all, which is why she found herself throwing her backpack into the back of Jan’s rusty car parked outside of the JFK airport, thousands of miles away from her troubles. 

\---

On their way to Jan’s apartment, they caught up on what had happened in their lives since they’d last seen each other. As expected, Jan happily blabbered on about everything from what she was studying in school to how her friends were doing, while Gigi mostly stayed quiet. She didn’t mind though, that was the way it had always been, and it was comforting to know that nothing about their dynamic had changed. 

“... Anyways, Crystal said she would start cooking dinner while I picked you up but she’s a shit cook so I wouldn’t be surprised if we end up having to order takeout when we get home.”

The mention of Crystal brought Gigi out of her thoughts. In her excitement over seeing her older sister, the tall blonde had completely forgotten that she would be living with another girl beside her sister, one that she had never even met before. The nervous butterflies in her stomach slowly made their way back from where they had been resting since Jan greeted her at the airport. 

“Oh, alright, that’s fine,” Gigi answered with a polite smile on her face. “What’s she like anyways?” she then asked in as casual of a tone as she could muster, trying not to show her nerves. 

“She’s…” Jan trailed off as if she needed to think on how she could summarize her roommate best. “Well, she’s Crystal,” the older sister laughed, “she’s super nice, don’t worry about it, you’re gonna love her!”

Gigi smiled back at Jan, mumbling an “Alright then” even though the very vague description did nothing to ease her growing nerves. 

\---

Jan’s apartment building was exactly what you would expect a college student to be able to afford. The concrete walls were grey and dirty, small bits of paint chipping off of the window frames on the first floor of the building. It was in an older part of town, but not old in the nice, fancy way. A piece of gum got stuck to the sole of Gigi’s pastel blue sneakers as she followed Jan up to the heavy metal door that led into the apartment building. The elevator was shaky and the older woman’s promises that “It’s a lot sturdier than it seems!” did little to quell Gigi’s anxieties as they slowly made their way up to the third floor. Outside the apartment door the sisters could already smell something burning from the inside. Jan was all smiles though, seemingly used to her roommate’s culinary missadventures. As the short blonde swung the door open she waltzed into the apartment shouting “Hey Crys, we’re here now!” before dumping Gigi’s suitcase on the wooden floor. Gigi sheepishly stood by the doorframe, feeling unsure and a bit out of place, before she silently made her way inside of the home where she would be staying for the next couple of months. 

The apartment was a decent size, with its three bedrooms, kitchen, and living room. Standing in the hall, all Gigi could really see was the living room and a small sliver of the kitchen. The room before her was filled with two dark green couches, a couple of armchairs in a loud shade of orange that most certainly didn’t match the couches, which were placed in a sort of semi-circle around an old tv on a wooden tv-stand standing against the wall. The remaining walls were lined with bookshelves and colorful abstract paintings that Gigi wondered if maybe Crystal had painted. Jan did say she was an Arts major after all. The room was a bit of a mess, if Gigi was to be completely honest, but somehow all of the mismatched furniture and the incohesive color combinations all kind of came together, in a homely and unique sort of way. As Gigi was taking it all in she heard a voice shouting from the kitchen. 

“Oh, cool, I’ll be right there in a second, hold on!” There was some scrambling and what sounded like a frying pan hitting the ground before a short latina girl came bouncing out of the kitchen, flour on her clothes and bright red curls falling out of the messy bun that sat on top of her head. “Hi! I’m Crystal, you must be Gigi, right?” Crystal said as she extended her hand to the tall blonde in front of her. 

Gigi felt her mouth go dry as she took in the girl in front of her. She was absolutely  _ stunning _ . Her dark brown eyes were big and inviting and they seemed to shine as she smiled at Gigi. Dear god, that smile. Those full lips painted the same obnoxious shade of red as her hair. Gigi felt her knees weaken. As she stared at the freckled face in front of her she somehow managed to stretch her hand out to meet Crystal’s and she hoped to god that her palm wasn’t too sweaty. “Yes, that’s me, I’m Gigi, hi,” the younger girl stuttered and she just knew she was blushing like an idiot at this point. 

Luckily Jan didn’t seem to take notice of this, instead grabbing Gigi’s stuff and putting it in the room that Gigi assumed she would be staying in for the summer. “So, I’m guessing, based on the smell coming from the kitchen, that we’ll be ordering takeout tonight, Crystal?” Jan questioned as she made her way out of Gigi’s new bedroom. 

“I… Yes… You know I really tried to make something nice, but apparently roasting veggies is a lot harder than it looks!” Crystal said with her hands raised in defense, while Jan just laughed at her and got out her phone, ready to order their dinner. 

“Yeayea, whatever, we both know you can’t even boil an egg without setting the kitchen on fire. Now how do we feel about pizza? Gigi, that sound good to you?” the older sister asked the younger girl, who was still standing by the door, just trying to take everything in. 

“Sure,” Gigi responded, looking at Crystal to see what her answer would be. 

“Okay Jan, the egg thing was  _ one  _ time! It happened  _ once _ !” the redhead exclaimed, “But yes, pizza sounds good,” she agreed, and went to sit on one of the couches as Jan called the nearest pizzeria. Gigi, still a bit uncertain, stood nervously by the door for a few more seconds before deciding to stop being so weird, and so she made her way to one of the armchairs and carefully sat down on it. Crystal smiled at her before asking; “Say Gigi, you don’t happen to be an amazing cook, do you?”

“Well I don’t know if I’m amazing, but I know how to boil an egg,” Gigi joked in an unexpected moment of bravery, and Crystal scoffed dramatically before laughing in surprise. 

“My god, we’ve known each other for like 5 minutes and you’re already shading me? At least now I know for sure that you’re related to Jan,” Crystal said while clutching her hand over the colorful, chunky jewelry that hung around her neck and Gigi felt her chest swell with a little bit of pride over the fact that she made the pretty roommate laugh. 

Jan, who had been listening to their conversation, cut Gigi off before she could answer anything. “Hey Geege, don’t sell yourself short now,” she said before turning to Crystal, “Gigi is actually really good at cooking so we might get to eat something other than takeout and frozen dinners this summer!”

Crystal looked at Gigi with a glint in her eyes that the blonde girl couldn’t quite place. “Oh really? Well, then you’ll have to teach me how to not set the kitchen on fire sometime!” she giggled and Gigi blushed at the compliment as well as the thought of hanging out with Crystal in any way, shape, or form. 

“Yeah, sure, I could do that,” she replied as casually as she could, hoping no one noticed the redness covering her sculpted face. 

Unbeknownst to her, Crystal definitely did. 

\---

The rest of the night went by quickly, the girls having pizza in front of the tv, bantering and joking around though Gigi mostly stayed quiet trying to take it all in, before they finally decided to call it a night and head to bed. As Gigi laid in her bed that night, in the room right next to Crystal’s, she couldn’t decide whether this summer would be amazing or absolute torture. 

  
  
  



End file.
